Sprint Free To Offer Possible Future 4G LTE IPhones, CFO Says

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) said it is free to offer a potential future Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone using the faster mobile broadband network known as 4G LTE.

Sprint Chief Financial Officer Joe Euteneuer declined to say if Apple has such an iPhone planned. The carrier plans to introduce the 4G LTE network in only six cities by midyear.

Nonetheless, Euteneuer said Tuesday at an investor conference that Sprint’sApple contract is similar to those of rivals AT&T Inc. (T) and Verizon Wireless, and that the carrier isn’t being held to any 4G LTE coverage requirements. In comparison, the other two carriers have rolled out 4G LTE to large swaths of the country.

“If you make the assumption that they launch a device at a similar time that they did last year, you’re basically done with the major markets” on Sprint’s 4G LTE buildout, Euteneuer said, noting the carrier plans to initially cover around 100 million Americans. “So I don’t think we are really disadvantaged at all.”

Apple representatives weren’t immediately available to comment.

While the iPhone helped Sprint stanch customers losses last quarter, the 1.8 million activations came with some of the industry’s heftiest subsidies. Sprint is on the hook for $15.5 billion worth of iPhones over the next several years and has said it won’t turn a profit on the device until 2015.

Verizon Wireless’s chief technical officer, David Small, earlier this month said the carrier would only roll out 4G LTE-capable smartphones for the remainder of the year, suggesting a future version of the iPhone would connect to the zippier network. Further, Apple this month rolled out its 4G LTE-capable iPad tablet computer.